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Press  >  October 2, 2008 Release

WeatherBug Announces StreamerRT, an Enhanced Weather Visualization Tool for the Energy Markets

StreamerRT Enables Energy Traders to Quickly Analyze Real Time Weather Conditions and Better Forecast Potential Electricity and Gas Price Market Changes

Germantown, Md. — WeatherBug^®, the leading provider of live, local weather information services, today announced the release of WeatherBug Professional StreamerRT for the energy market. With enhanced GIS mapping capabilities, StreamerRT is an enhanced web-based platform which enables energy traders’ greater customization and improved visualization to quickly analyze existing and potential weather conditions that will likely impact electricity and gas price markets.

With StreamerRT’s up-to-the-minute weather observations, traders can detect quick changes in expected weather before reactions in power consumptions and then trade accordingly. "A small rise in temperature can mean the difference of thousands of dollars for real-time traders in the energy markets," says John Doherty, senior vice president of sales and marketing at WeatherBug. "With the ability to quickly assess the impact of weather conditions, instantly and accurately, StreamerRT offers a distinct competitive advantage. StreamerRT enables energy traders to better prepare and respond with greater precision and performance."

A true web-based application — no downloads or plug-ins are required to harness the power of StreamerRT. Live weather data and forecast information is collected and aggregated from the National Weather Service (NWS) and the WeatherBug Network, a national network of professional-grade weather stations and cameras located at schools, public safety facilities, and in rural and residential areas throughout the country, including on and off-shore locations along the entire Gulf Coast.

The data is then networked together and streamed live through the Internet directly to the trader’s desk. As a result, traders can see detailed views into specific areas such as neighborhoods or entire counties for short-term forecasts and historical weather analysis. StreamerRT also includes severe weather alerts from the WeatherBug Network such as lightning, heavy precipitation, and heat index in addition to NWS’ watches and warnings.

"Streamer is an invaluable tool on our real-time desk. The product is simple to navigate and the data is extremely useful in determining forecast deviations and sudden load changes. The weather IMalert notifications help to ensure we have advance indication of weather events that could drastically affect our position in the intraday market," says Matt Fahey, real time energy manager for International Power America.

In addition to some of the same functionality of the popular WeatherBug Streamer 3.0 tool, StreamerRT also now delivers enhanced capabilities, such as:

• The most detailed color contour maps available for critical surface weather including temperature, temperature rate change, temperature forecast and forecast deviation;
• More customization to set regions based on trading needs so energy traders can select and save weather parameters normally triggered or customize sectors to recall with one click or to view as a slideshow for easy access and display of weather in a defined area.
• A fully interactive mapping platform which enables easy pan/zoom capabilities of all weather data and full overlay capabilities of numerous weather attributes on the same map at the same time as well as enhanced radar imagery for smooth and clear images in a specific area/region; and
• Expanded visualization of WeatherBug’s live weather station data with faster automatic updates and more detailed data summaries and station dashboard.

"Great maps, more geographic detail, smoother data, it’s all been enhanced to improve the user experience," continues Doherty. "Now when a trader needs to drill in and really understand and see what is going on, the data is only a click away."

StreamerRT is available immediately. More information can be found on the WeatherBug Web site at www.weatherbugprofessional.com or by calling 1-978-897-7705.

About WeatherBug
WeatherBug (http://www.weatherbug.com and http://www.weatherbugprofessional.com) is a trusted source of dynamic weather information enabling people worldwide to make more informed weather-related decisions. Millions of consumers and professional organizations, including the National Weather Service, rely on WeatherBug to make mission critical decisions which safeguard lives, impact communities and improve business operations. WeatherBug is a brand of AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc (http://www.aws.com)

For more information, please contact:

Mara Radis, Director of Corporate Communications
WeatherBug
(301) 250-4017
mradis@weatherbug.com